 Adultery in the News
Vito Fossella's betrayed wife goes solo to S.I. family bashNY Daily News, by Joe Gould, Matthew Lysiak, and Larry McShane, published, May 11th 2008Disgraced Congressman Vito Fossella hid out Saturday while his estranged wife stepped out - alone - to the First Communion party of their goddaughter on Staten Island. It was the latest and largest crack in their 18-year marriage, and another sign that flowers and brunch aren't going to do it for Fossella this Mother's Day - not after he admitted he could mark the occasion with either his wife or his mistress.  Mary Pat Fossella, the mother of his three Staten Island children, arrived at the family home with an overnight bag slung across her shoulder about 2 p.m. Saturday. She was driven by a neighbor. A short time later, after a change of clothes, the betrayed spouse left by herself for the First Communion ceremony. "I have nothing to say," Mary Pat said. A neighbor said Fossella was the godfather to the first communicant, but he wasn't heading to the party or staying in his family's house anymore. Mary Pat later took their son to a Little League game without Fossella. "She was a wonderful wife," said the neighbor, referring to the marriage in the past tense. The neighbor said Mary Pat was holding up despite the great strain caused by her husband's admission that he had fathered a love child in Virginia. "She's my new idol," the woman said. Mary Pat's father, Thomas Rowan, didn't mince words when asked how she was doing. "Bad," Rowan said before shutting the door of his home. Fossella's furious wife is considering divorce after learning of his second family, a source said. Laura Fay, the mother of his love child, also feels betrayed. She had believed Fossella when he claimed that he and Mary Pat were separated, a source said. There's just not enough chocolate in the world to sugarcoat that. Fossella's Mother's Day plans remained unknown, although one family friend, more aligned with the congressman's wife, offered a tongue-in-cheek suggestion. "I just hope that he's got frequent flyer miles ... he's got to cover a lot of real estate," the friend said. "Maybe if he's taking the two moms out, he does an early bird special and an after-theater special." Sources indicated Fossella was hiding out on Staten Island at his uncle's house, where the shades were pulled down tight. His double life was turned upside down by his May 1 arrest for DWI, when he called Fay from the Alexandria, Va., lockup. He was arrested about 3 miles from where she lives with their 3-year-old daughter. After refusing for days to answer questions from the Daily News about his relationship with Fay and whether he was the girl's dad, he confessed. The Staten Island Republican has at least one sympathetic ear: Fay's aunt, Carol Urbas, said the scandal must be tough on the Fossella clan. "I can't imagine the other family," she said. "I can't think about them, because my heart hurts for them." With Celeste Katz in New York and Christina Boyle in Ely, Minn. © Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com. All rights reserved. (For more on Vito Fossella's illicit romance, see stories below. ~ Marie & Marlene) Vito Fossella lied to other woman; wife considers dumping himNY Daily News, published May 10th 2008Vito Fossella's admission that he fathered a love child exposed another of his lies: He had told his girlfriend he was separated from his wife, the Daily News learned Friday. For Vito, romance amid the ruinsNY Daily News by Adam Lisberg, updated May 11th 2008Vito Fossella's illicit romance with the mother of his love child was a whirlwind affair that began on a rocky Mediterranean island and blossomed among the ancient ruins of Spain. Former Sen. Brooke mum on reported Barbara Walters affairNew York (AP) by Frazier Moore, published, May 2, 2008(Barbara Walters discusses her affair with a married man--35 years ago. She broke it off to protect their careers. No mention of his wife or her side of the story. ~ Marie & Marlene)   Former U.S. Sen. Edward Brooke declined to comment Friday about whether he had an affair with Barbara Walters in the 1970s. "I have had a lifetime policy and practice of not discussing my personal and private life, or the personal and private lives of others, with the notable exception of what I wrote in my recently published autobiography, 'Bridging the Divide: My Life,'" he told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Miami.
A relationship with Walters wasn't mentioned in his book, the 88-year-old former senator from Massachusetts told the AP. His memoir was published in 2006. In an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" scheduled to air Tuesday, Walters shares details of her relationship with the married Brooke that lasted several years in the 1970s, according to excerpts of the show provided to the AP. A moderate Republican who took office in 1967, Brooke was the first African-American to be popularly elected to the Senate. Walters said he and she knew that public knowledge of their affair could have ruined their careers.
At the time, the twice-divorced Walters was a rising star in TV news and co-host of NBC's "Today" show, but would soon jump to ABC News, where she has enjoyed unrivaled success. She said her affair with Brooke, which never before came to light, had ended before he lost his bid for a third term in 1978. Brooke later divorced, and has since remarried.
Walters, 78, will appear on Winfrey's show to discuss her new memoir, "Audition," which covers her long career in television, as well as her off-camera life. On "Oprah," Walters recounts a phone call from a friend who urged her to stop seeing Brooke. "He said, 'This is going to come out. This is going to ruin your career,'" then reminded her that Brooke was up for re-election a year later. "'This is going to ruin him. You've got to break this off.'" Winfrey asks Walters if she was in love. "I was certainly - I don't know - I was certainly infatuated." "Infatuated." "I was certainly involved," Walters says. "He was exciting. He was brilliant. It was exciting times in Washington."
Brooke served two full terms from 1967 to 1979, taking on the populist causes of low-income housing, increasing the minimum wage and mass transit. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, an honor only 21 U.S. senators have received. Roger Clemens had a decade-long relationship with country star Mindy McCready that began when she was a 15-year-old aspiring singer and the pitcher was a Boston Red Sox ace, the Daily News reported. Clemens' lawyer, Rusty Hardin, confirmed a long-term relationship but told the newspaper it was not sexual. "He flatly denies having had any kind of an inappropriate relationship with her," Hardin said. "He's considered her a close family friend. ... He has never had a sexual relationship with her."
Clemens was 28 and a married father of two when he first met McCready, the newspaper reported. The story, which appeared on the newspaper's Web site Sunday night and in editions Monday, quoted several people who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation. It said Clemens sent cash to McCready to help her with legal issues and reached out to her when she was in jail last year in Tennessee.
The 32-year-old McCready, sentenced last September for violating probation from a 2004 drug arrest, was released from jail last Dec. 30. The violation occurred in July when McCready was accused of scuffling with her mother and resisting arrest at her mother's home in Fort Myers, Fla. She still must serve two years' probation. McCready had a No. 1 single in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time."
The revelation could undermine Clemens' reputation, which is central to the defamation suit the former pitcher has filed against former personal trainer Brian McNamee. McNamee contends Clemens used performance-enhancing substances during his major league career. "If true, it's just another example of Roger's pervasive prevarications which will be at the core of any defamation case," said McNamee's attorney, Richard Emery, in an e-mail to The Associated Press. Hardin did not respond immediately to an e-mail from the AP. French President Nicolas Sarkozy may be cozy with his new bride, but Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing cartwheels over his bride-to-be - a former Olympic gymnast less than half his age. European media are reporting Putin, 56, has walked out on his 50-year-old wife, Ludmilla, and is set to marry brunette Alina Kabaeva, 24, who represented Russia in two Olympics. As a rhythm gymnast, she was known for her "extreme natural flexibility," Russian media say.
A photogenic beauty from Uzbekistan, Kabaeva is quite the Russian celebrity - she posed for daring photos wrapped in nothing but furs before becoming a member of the Russian Parliament. A Moscow gossip column said a party planner in Putin's home city of St. Petersburg was bidding to organize the couple's lavish wedding reception. Another report said the couple plans to marry in mid-June, just after Putin steps down as president. A Web site claims the two were seen kissing in a Moscow restaurant. The Kremlin has refused to acknowledge the rumors.
Two months ago, Sarkozy, 53, married high-profile model and celebrity Carla Bruni, 40, in a private wedding ceremony at the presidential Elysee Palace. Meanwhile, Sarkozy's ex-wife, Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, reportedly tied the knot with wealthy event planner Richard Attias last month in a ceremony in the Rainbow Room of Rockefeller Center. TROY, Mich. (AP) — When Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Louisiana Sen. David Vitter were named in sex scandals, the lawmakers largely shunned the public eye before discussing allegations of marital infidelities. But Sen. Debbie Stabenow mostly kept to her schedule Wednesday, hours after news broke that her husband told authorities he had a $150 encounter with a prostitute. With the scrutiny directed at her spouse, Stabenow vowed to work through what she described as a family matter. She participated in meetings with fellow Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, listened to a briefing on health information technology and met with constituents. "I have to say we are tough in Michigan and resilient and working hard to bring new opportunities and new industries," Stabenow said in a speech on the Senate floor about Michigan's struggling economy.
Some of her words could have described her own struggle. Her husband, Thomas Athans, 46, was stopped by police who were investigating prostitution at the hotel, according to a police report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press under the state Freedom of Information Act. Athans, co-founder of the liberal TalkUSA Radio network, apologized in a statement issued by his attorney and said he "fully cooperated with law enforcement. My family and I are dealing with this matter in a personal and private way."
Stabenow, in an interview with The AP, said she wanted "folks to know that I'm grateful for their prayers and support and this is a family matter that is very difficult but we are going to work through it." Athans' involvement with a prostitute brought comparisons to New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned last month after allegations he spent thousands of dollars on a call girl at a swanky Washington hotel on the night before Valentine's Day.
The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News first reported on the Athans case in stories on their Web sites Wednesday. Stabenow was scheduled to attend a morning news conference with University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman but did not appear. Stabenow later spoke on the Senate floor on housing legislation. Vitter, R-La., went into seclusion for a week after admitting links to a Washington escort service that federal prosecutors allege was a prostitution ring. Kilpatrick avoided public comment for about a week after the Free Press published excerpts of embarrassing and sexually explicit text messages, prompting an investigation that led to perjury charges against the mayor and his former chief of staff.
Troy police set up a stakeout at the Residence Inn after learning of suspected prostitution at a room there Feb. 25, the police report said. Officers said they saw Athans enter the room Feb. 26 and leave 15 minutes later. They stopped Athans' car and informed him they were investigating prostitution. The report said Athans told the officers "that he had just met a female at the Residence Inn, where he paid $150 for sex." It said the woman performed oral sex on Athans. Athans told police he responded to an ad on CraigsList. The police report included an ad for "Kasey," who later was identified as Alycia Martin, which said she was looking for "a nice gentlemen that love's the company of a real lady." She listed her rates as $100 for 15 minutes, $160 for half an hour and $225 for an hour. Martin told police that the Web posting and room rental had been arranged by someone else but would not identify who, the police report said.
Stabenow was in Washington on Feb. 26 and registered four roll call votes, according to Senate records. Police did not bring any sex charges against Athans but later mailed him a ticket for driving with a suspended license. Athans' license was suspended last year for failure to pay a ticket for driving without proof of insurance, according to the Michigan Department of State. Court records show he paid a $115 fine, and the state restored his license March 11.
Athans was cooperative and "didn't drop any names or ask for preferential treatment," said department spokesman Lt. Gerry Scherlinck. Police arrested Martin, 20, of Westland in the hotel room on a charge of prostitution and confiscated a cell phone, laptop and $431. There is no telephone listing for her in Westland. Martin was freed on a $100 cash bond. She was arraigned March 12 in Troy District Court and was scheduled to return for a pretrial hearing April 22. She did not have an attorney of record on Wednesday.
Stabenow and Athans married in February 2003. Athans, an Air Force veteran, worked as an aide in Stabenow's Detroit office prior to their engagement and marriage and also worked for Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich. Athans was a member of the Oxford Village City Council in Oakland County from 1996 to 2002 and served as the village's president from 2001-2002. He started TalkUSA Radio in 2006 after leading programming at Air America, the liberal network that declared bankruptcy that year. Stabenow, 57, has two adult children from her first marriage to Dennis Stabenow. The couple divorced in 1990. Gov. Paterson admitted Wednesday he may have improperly billed his campaign for at least one hotel tryst with a girlfriend. The expecditure was apparently listed as "constituent services."
The thunderous applause was still ringing in his ears when the state's new governor, David Paterson, told the Daily News that he and his wife had extramarital affairs, writes columnist Juan Gonzalez. A former aide to gay ex-New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey says he had three-way sex romps with the former governor and his now-estranged wife, Dina Matos McGreevey. (For more on Ms. Dina Matos McGreevey, see the story below from September 2007. ~ Marie & Marlene) (Our book also addresses what to do when the affair partner is a man. ~ Marie & Marlene) Perhaps no one knows better than Dina Matos McGreevey how Suzanne Craig - the wife of Idaho Sen. Larry Craig - felt as her husband insisted he is not gay despite his guilty plea in a police sex sting.
Matos McGreevey once stood shellshocked next to her ex-husband, then-New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey, as he announced before TV cameras that he was "a gay American" and would resign.
"I was watching his wife the other day standing next to him, and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, that was me three years ago. Now here we go again,'" Matos McGreevey said in an interview at her home Friday evening. "She's a victim of the choices he's made." James McGreevey, the nation's first openly gay governor, later said he stepped down rather than succumb to a $50 million blackmail threat from a male former lover.
When it was Suzanne Craig's turn to stand stoically beside her husband this week, 40-year-old Matos McGreevey said she felt her pain. Matos McGreevey said she stood by her man in 2004 because she still loved him and she felt she had done nothing wrong.
"For me, I decided I was going to stand by my husband's side. I was in shock, I had not had an opportunity to absorb what was happening," she said. "I had 48 hours, 72 hours to try to make sense of what he was telling me."
Asked if Suzanne Craig should follow her lead, Matos McGreevey said: "Only she can answer that question," she said.
Republican officials said Friday that Craig will resign from the Senate on Saturday. The announcement comes amid a furor over Craig's arrest and guilty plea in a police sex sting in an airport men's room.
The 62-year-old grandfather denied he used foot and hand gestures to signal interest in a sexual encounter with an undercover officer and said his guilty plea to a reduced charge was a mistake.
Matos McGreevey predicted tough times ahead for the Craigs, and offered this advice to the beleaguered political wife: "Do what's right for you and your family, not what's politically expedient or what your husband wants you to do. That's certainly something that I learned from my experience."
Matos McGreevey said in the midst of her personal turmoil she called Hillary Rodham Clinton for advice. The former first lady also had been publicly humiliated by her philandering husband, though his indiscretions were with a female intern and did not involve gay sex.
"She said the best piece of advice I can give you is to get your own counsel and do what you think you need to do protect you and your daughter," Matos McGreevey recalled. "And don't let your husband's advisers make decisions for you."
These days, Matos McGreevey said she counsels others in similar situations who contact her by letter, e-mail, phone and in person, sometimes at unlikely places like the grocery store.
"I've had many conversations with people in my shoes," she said.
Although she did not ask to become a symbol for spouses weathering the gay infidelities of their mates, Matos McGreevey said helping others means "the pain I have gone through has not been in vain."
Jim McGreevey, 50, will begin full-time studies at General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in Manhattan, seminary spokesman Bruce Parker said Friday.
Matos McGreevey, who is now locked in a contentious divorce proceeding with her estranged husband, said the relationship was over once he came out. She said she is moving on, even dating, but has lasting issues trusting others.
"It's very painful to know that you've been betrayed by the person you love, the person you trust," she said. "And it's equally painful when you have the rest of the world, who doesn't know what you're feeling, what your relationship is like, criticizing you for taking certain actions." She left a broken home on the Jersey Shore at 17 and came to New York City to work the nightclubs as a rhythm and blues singer. Now, at 22, she is the unwitting, and as yet unseen, star of the seamy drama that is the downfall of Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York. Kristen, the prostitute described in a federal affidavit as having had a rendezvous with Mr. Spitzer on Feb. 13 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, has spent the last few days in her ninth-floor apartment in the Flatiron district of Manhattan. On Monday, she made a brief appearance in federal court, where a lawyer was appointed to represent her. She is expected to be a witness in the case against four people charged with operating a prostitution ring called the Emperor’s Club V.I.P.
In a series of telephone interviews on Tuesday night, she said she had slept very little over the past week, with all the stress of the case. “I just don’t want to be thought of as a monster,” the woman said as she told the tiniest tidbits of her story... (As we note in our book, the male brain does work differently and being forewarned is being forearmed. ~ Marie & Marlene) We'll never know exactly what New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was thinking when he allegedly arranged a dalliance with a high-priced prostitute, risking the collapse of both his career and his family. Even he may not fully understand his own actions. But all too many powerful men can at least identify with him, because they've been there. Spitzer is simply the latest married politician caught with his pants down, a group so large that "pretty soon there will be enough of them to do a scientific study," says Texas psychologist Brian Gladue. Why do men with so much to lose take the chance that they may in fact lose it? Psychologists say they fit a profile: the traits that help them succeed at high-powered jobs are often the same ones that cause them to fail in their personal lives. NEWSWEEK's Mary Carmichael asked several analysts to put the typical philandering politician on the couch. Gimme More: Many fallen politicians fit a personality type known as a "sensation seeker," defined in the early 1970s. Sensation seekers crave novel and intense experiences more than other people do, and, as part of that, they tend to have many sexual partners. "They get a bigger kick out of things," says Marvin Zuckerman, a pioneering psychologist and author of the 2006 book "Sensation Seeking and Risky Behavior." There's chemical evidence: sensation seekers have lower levels of monoamine oxidase A, which regulates the brain's levels of dopamine, the "pleasure" neurotransmitter.
Of course, loving life isn't always a bad thing: sensation seekers are often high-energy, high-functioning people. The problem is that they never seem to get enough excitement. "Their experiences have to be either very new or very intense, or both, or else they get very restless," says Zuckerman. "When things get monotonous, they have to do something else to increase their arousal." That's the flipside of finding pleasure more pleasurable: for sensation seekers, boredom is also more boring.
Risk Rules! Sensation seekers don't just lust after things--they take them, often disregarding the risks that block their way. "When you're dealing with these high-level, in-your-face, go-for-everything guys, you're dealing with people who take a lot of risks. If that results in gains for them, they get on a roll, and pretty soon their risk management starts to fade a little," says Gladue, who is based at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. "At some point, they can't manage every aspect of their lives. They have to blow off some steam, so they say to themselves, 'this is something I'm going to do for thrills or chills or fun. It's kind of dangerous, and I'm not going to worry about it.' For politicians, that's often in their private life, where they don't have people managing them all the time. And that's where things get out of hand."
For these types, the risk itself is part of the reward. "Breaking rules is a thrill for them," says Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University. "Look at Spitzer: he's Mr. Rectitude, the terror of Wall Street, and he busts prostitution rings, and yet he allegedly goes into that very lions' den—the prostitution ring—and partakes. If that isn't risk-taking I don't know what other label to put on it."
He's Hormonal. Alpha males are high on testosterone, the hormone that underlies almost all the typical traits of the politico-sexual animal: high levels of testosterone make for a high sex drive, a love of risks, aggressiveness and competitiveness. "These people have a strong need to win at games, which is obviously important in power politics," says Zuckerman. Success sends their testosterone spiraling up, while a loss brings the levels down—a phenomenon that's been documented in the lab as well as in athletes and chess champions.
Women's testosterone levels also rise when there's competition on the line, but the actual act of winning—or, for that matter, losing—doesn't have any effect on the levels either way. It's the game, not the outcome, that makes the difference for women. Success, then, may not set them off-balance the same way. Evolutionary psychology also suggests that women leaders wouldn't be as likely as men to get caught in sex scandals. "Men and women play different roles in reproduction, so I don't think that you'd see the same kind of pattern where high-status women would be more likely to seek out lots and lots of men," says Daniel Kruger, a research scientist at the University of Michigan who has studied risk-taking behavior. "That's not going to really benefit them that much because they're limited in the number of children they could have." Men, on the other hand, have more of a biological imperative to spread their genes far and wide--the kind of privilege that often comes with being an alpha male.
Hungry for Power. Not everyone wants to be a high-profile politician. It takes, among other things, supreme confidence—the kind that may shade into egocentrism and lead to downfall. "For high-profile offices—we're not talking about the school board, but mayors, governors, senators, some members of Congress and the presidency—you have to have a kind of personality where you are very interested in yourself and your personal needs, as well as the needs of others," says John Gastil, a University of Washington political scientist. "When the gratification of your desire for social change becomes the justification for so much of what you do in your career, it's not a leap to then say, 'Well, my other desires and needs are equally justified.' You come up with elaborate justifications. 'Hey, 23 hours day I'm working hard for the people of New York. Time for a little me time!'"
Ironically, that kind of confidence is part of what appeals to voters. "We love charismatic people, the 'micro-messiahs'," says Gastil. "We favor the candidates who are already concerned with projecting certainty and power and strength—and we cultivate those characteristics in people. We want a little bit of that sense that these people are special and different. Does that go to their heads? Of course it does."
And then power has its own corrosive effects. A person who seeks out power may already be compromised. But once he's got that power, he may be tempted beyond anything he's experienced before. "We sometimes say, 'God, what do these people think, the rules don't apply to them?' Well, that's often true. They really do live in a different world from most of us," says Gastil. "Spitzer apparently had access to a service where you pay top dollar for exclusivity and discretion—one that most people don't have access to. Probably your average philanderer doesn't know such a company even exists." Remember the explanation Bill Clinton gave for his cheating: "I did something for the worst possible reason—just because I could."
As the saying goes, power is also an aphrodisiac—and that's been true, says Kruger, as long as humans have been around. "In our evolutionary history, men who had lots of resources and status and power were able to have more than one partner. Your body is basically saying if you have this power, you should use it, because that's what has worked before," he says. "Even in modern history, whether you're talking about medieval kings or sultans or rock stars, quite a few have multiple partners. So you're not so surprised to see this dynamic in politics today."
He Thinks He's Invincible. Bloggers and commenters have been floating the idea that Spitzer was subconsiously hoping to be caught. But that, at least, is one negative trait that psychologists hesitate to ascribe to him. "The idea of a death wish, that he was self-destructive—I don't think there's a shred of reason to believe that," says Farley.
Instead, the opposite may be true: not only was Spitzer hoping to get away with something, he honestly thought he'd be able to. "It does have an element of Greek tragedy to it. There's a certain amount of hubris that goes with getting to the top," says Gladue. "You think you're invincible. You just don't think it could happen to you." Until, of course, it does. Newsweek © 2008. (As we note in our book, being a beautiful wife doesn't insulate you from a husband's adultery. ~ Marie & Marlene) ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation. The wiretap recording, made during an investigation of a prostitution ring called Emperors Club VIP, captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a room. The person briefed on the case identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9.
The governor learned that he had been implicated in the prostitution probe when a federal official contacted his staff last Friday, according to the person briefed on the case. The governor informed his top aides Sunday night and this morning of his involvement. He canceled his public events today and scheduled an announcement for this afternoon after inquiries from the Times. The governor’s aides appeared shaken, and one of them began to weep as they waited for him to make his statement at his Manhattan office. Mr. Spitzer was seen leaving his Fifth Avenue apartment just before 3 p.m. with his wife of 21 years, Silda, heading to the news conference. The man described as Client 9 in court papers arranged to meet with a prostitute who was part of the ring, Emperors Club VIP, on the night of Feb. 13. Mr. Spitzer traveled to Washington that evening, according to a person told of his travel arrangements.
The affidavit says that Client 9 met with the woman in hotel room 871 but does not identify the hotel. Mr. Spitzer stayed at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on Feb. 13, according to a source who was told of his travel arrangements. Room 871 at the Mayflower Hotel that evening was registered under the another name. Federal prosecutors rarely charge clients in prostitution cases, which are generally seen as state crimes. But the Mann Act, passed by Congress in 1910 to address prostitution, human trafficking and what was viewed at the time as immorality in general, makes it a crime to transport someone between states for the purpose of prostitution. The four defendants charged in the case unsealed last week were all charged with that crime, along with several others.
Mr. Spitzer had a difficult first year in office, rocked by a mix of scandal and legislative setbacks. In recent weeks, however, Mr. Spitzer seemed to have rebounded, with his Democratic party poised to perhaps gain control of the state Senate for the first time in four decades. Mr. Spitzer gained national attention when he served as attorney general with his relentless pursuit of Wall Street wrongdoing. As attorney general, he also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force. In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island. “This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. ”It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring.”
Albany for months has been roiled by bitter fighting and accusations of dirty tricks. The Albany County district attorney is set to issue in the coming days the results of his investigation into Mr. Spitzer’s first scandal, his aides’ involvement in an effort to tarnish Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, the state’s top Republican. (For more on the scandal, log on to The Smoking Gun Web site, to view the legal documents involved. ~ Marie & Marlene)
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - John McCain emphatically denied a romantic relationship with a female telecommunications lobbyist on Thursday and said a report by The New York Times suggesting favoritism for her clients is "not true."
"I'm very disappointed in the article. It's not true," the likely Republican presidential nominee said as his wife, Cindy, stood beside him during a news conference called to address the matter....McCain described the woman in question, lobbyist Vicki Iseman, as a friend.
The newspaper quoted anonymous aides as saying they had urged McCain and Iseman to stay away from each other prior to his failed presidential campaign in 2000. In its own follow-up story, The Washington Post quoted longtime aide John Weaver, who split with McCain last year, as saying he met with lobbyist Iseman and urged her to steer clear of McCain.... His wife also said she was disappointed with the newspaper. "More importantly, my children and I not only trust my husband, but know that he would never do anything to not only disappoint our family, but disappoint the people of America. He's a man of great character,"Cindy McCain said. The couple smiled throughout the questioning at a Toledo hotel.
The published reports said McCain and Iseman each denied having a romantic relationship. Neither story asserted that there was a romantic relationship and offered no evidence that there was, reporting only that aides worried about the appearance of McCain having close ties to a lobbyist with business before the Senate Commerce Committee on which McCain served.
The stories also allege that McCain wrote letters and pushed legislation involving television station ownership that would have benefited Iseman's clients....
(For more on McCain from 2000, see the story below. ~ Marie & Marlene) ...Mr. McCain has acknowledged running around with women and accepted responsibility for the breakup of the marriage, without going into details. But his supporters and his biographer, Robert Timberg, all suggest that the marriage had already effectively ended and that the couple had separated by the time he met Cindy, his present wife.
That might be the most soothing way of explaining a politician's divorce from a disabled wife and his remarriage to a wealthy heiress, but it does not jibe with accounts of family members and friends.
John and Carol McCain had separated once briefly after they moved to Washington, when he moved his gear into his mother's house on Connecticut Avenue. That was the first hint that Joe McCain, John's younger brother, had of any marital problems, for neither John nor Carol confided much about personal problems.
"I remember asking him one time," Joe McCain recalled. "I said: 'You don't look so happy. You want to talk about it?' And he said, 'No, pal."'
That separation lasted about two weeks and was not repeated until the final split, said their son Andy, and even close family friends never knew about it. To outsiders, who often visited the McCain household, the marriage seemed as close as ever.
"They were definitely living together as man and wife when I was there," recalled Mr. Smith, the former instructor pilot, who moved to Washington and lived with the McCains in their home from about February through May 1979. "And there were no signs of strain.
"For somebody to say that they were separated or at each other's throats is just nonsense," Mr. Smith said.
Yet at precisely the time that Mr. Smith was a guest in what appeared to be a happy household, in April 1979, Mr. McCain accompanied a group of senators on a trip to China. The Navy threw a big cocktail party for the group during a stopover in Honolulu.
"John and I were talking, and then somebody tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around and exchanged a few words," said Albert A. Lakeland, then a Senate staff member. "When I turned around, John was gone. I looked around, and he was making a beeline for this very attractive blond woman.
"He spent the whole party talking to her, and he kept avoiding me when I approached," Mr. Lakeland said. After the reception, Mr. McCain and the young woman, Cindy Hensley, went out to dinner, and the romance blossomed.
Mr. McCain continued to pursue Miss Hensley, calling her to keep in touch. When she thanked him for sending flowers that had just arrived (signed "John") he said it was nothing. As she discovered years later, they were from another man named John.
Over the next six months, Mr. McCain pursued Miss Hensley aggressively, flying around the country to see her, and he began to push to end his marriage. Friends say that Carol McCain was in shock.
Late that year, the McCains finally separated, and Mrs. McCain accepted a divorce the next February. Mr. McCain promptly married Miss Hensley, his present wife.
The first Mrs. McCain never seems to have said a harsh word about Mr. McCain (nor he about her), and was discreet even with friends. Mrs. Bookbinder, her old roommate, says that her first inkling came when Mrs. McCain met her one day and abruptly said, "I'm getting a divorce." When Mrs. Bookbinder, who was stunned, asked what had gone wrong, Mrs. McCain answered, "It's just one of those things."
Mr. McCain's three children in the first marriage were less forgiving at first, and none of them were in attendance when he married Cindy. No one blamed Cindy, however, for she seemed shy and it was clear that Mr. McCain had been the pursuer.
"I was certainly disappointed and mad at Dad," remembered Andy, who said it took almost four years for his anger to evaporate. He added: "I hold him responsible. I don't hold Cindy responsible a bit."
Some old friends believe that Mr. McCain was as restless in the marriage as in the Navy, and that he was actively looking for a new wife when he met Cindy.
"My take on it was that the marriage had come unglued," said George Day, an old friend who represented Mr. McCain as a lawyer in the divorce. "Then what happened with meeting Cindy, was that he had already made the decision to get divorced."
Some family friends were appalled that a man who seemed so decent, so full of compassion for anyone who needed help, could treat his own wife in a manner they regarded as brutal. But Mr. McCain gradually won everyone around again, with the same traits he now displays after making a mistake: a combination of charm and penitence.
"We were ticked," said Nancy Reynolds, an old family friend. "I'd glare at him, and he'd say, 'Nance!"' Mrs. Reynolds paused and laughed and added: "If you meet him, you're under his spell. He's irresistible."
It helped that Mr. McCain always accepted blame -- embraced it -- rather than making excuses.
"He has always felt very guilty about it," Mr. McGovern said. "I have never talked with him for more than 40 minutes when he didn't bring it up, saying he felt badly about it."
So John and Carol McCain managed to remain friends, and she has backed him in all his campaigns.
"I'm crazy about John McCain and I love him to pieces," Carol McCain said.
"but I'm just not going to do any interviews."
Likewise, his children have all gotten over their anger, to the point that their son Doug chose his father to be best man at his wedding. And four years ago, after a family conference to make sure there would be no hard feelings, son Andy decided to go to work in Arizona for the beer distributorship owned by Cindy McCain's family. All the children, including those from his second marriage, are enthusiastically backing their father's candidacy. (For more, click the link at the top of this section.) Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company. (As we note in our book, some kinds of professions are prone to infidelity. Consider this article about law firms and their "love contracts." ~ Marie & Marlene) Recently, on the American version of the TV show “The Office,” two of the main characters — Jim and Pam — confess to their co-workers that they’ve become romantically involved. In the spirit of openness and responsibility, the couple goes to the head of human resources, Toby, to ask whether they need to sign something attesting to their relationship. Toby (Paul Lieberstein), who also has a thing for Pam, tells them that won’t be necessary.
With Valentines Day upon us, we found ourselves asking: What would’ve happened if Jim and Pam were lawyers? Would they have insisted on signing a love contract to establish their rights and remedies in the event of a break-up? If Jim and Pam were both hard-working associates, would their relationship be more susceptible to trouble?
To work through these relationship issues — and the law that governs them — we caught up with Ashley Brightwell, a partner at Alston & Bird in Atlanta. Brightwell, who focuses on employment litigation, filled us in on the rise of love contracts, the phenomenon of lawyers who date lawyers and best practices for conducting a firm romance.
Hi Ashley. Thanks for chatting. So you’re a specialist on office romances. Talk about that a bit. I do a lot of sexual harassment cases, mostly defending the company. Of sex harassment cases, I’d say a third stem from something that arguably began as a consensual relationship – either formal dating, or an affair — and then morphs into a bad break-up or something that’s no longer consensual. Or, just something as simple as intra-office flirtation where one party thought it was mutual, and the other party either never thought it was, or things progressed into it becoming unwelcome.
What are “love contracts”? It used to be that many companies had strict prohibitions on office romances. Then they recognized that wasn’t going to work, and that no matter what the policies were, employees were going to get involved. That’s when the idea of a love contract came along. It’s a tool that employers use to protect themselves when an office romance goes sour. It’s a document that confirms that a relationship is voluntary and informs the parties of the company’s sexual harassment policies. It sets out a procedure if, at any point, the relationship goes south.
Let’s focus on law firms. We’ve heard a lot about the concept of “firm boyfriends” and “firm girlfriends.” Not romances, but the kinds of close relationships that develop between lawyers who spend more time with each other than they do with their families. Do a lot of law firm affairs begin like that? I don’t have hard stats to back this up, but the number of affairs in law firms and romances that end up in marriage seem to be greater than in the general population. In large part, it’s because you’ve got a lot of people who are close in age, doing the same work, working alongside each other and putting in long hours. It’s inevitable, in those circumstances, that you’re going to have a lot of office romances.
What are the major pitfalls for lawyers who date lawyers? Take a partner dating an associate, for example. I think when you’ve got a partner and an associate you’ve got two big issues. First is the fact that a partner can control the associate. Whether the relationship is going great or whether it goes south, the partner can really affect the person’s employment – in terms of the work they get, their reviews, and possibly even their salaries. The other issue is this: the perception among other associates and partners. For instance, if a female associate is getting great benefits because of a relationship it can result in hostile work environment claims from those outside the relationship.
Let’s try a hypothetical. I’m a sleep-deprived second-year associate who can’t find much time to socialize outside of work. One day I come running into your office, jump up and down on your couch, and confess that — on a firm-sponsored booze cruise — I fell in love with a summer associate. Advise me. First you look and see what your firm’s policies say. If relationships are permissible in your organization, then there shouldn’t be a problem as far as HR or management are concerned. But I’d still advise informing someone higher up that it’s going on. And if that summer decides to become a lawyer at your firm, I’d take whatever steps I could to make sure you’re not working with that person. I’d avoid day-to-day interaction.
But I don’t need to fight my feelings, right? Well, firms and companies are recognizing that if you have a policy against office romances, it’s just going to be broken. So they’re dealing with them in different ways – whether you call it a love contract or something less cheesy. So often I see things go bad, and then one person comes in and says it was never consensual to begin with. Typically, that person can produce a big stack of emails which look quite bad. But you can prevent a lot with a love contract in which the parties agree it’s voluntary.
Thanks, Ashley. And happy Valentine’s Day. No problem. You too. DETROIT - Christine Beatty, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's chief of staff, said Monday she is resigning amid allegations that she and the mayor lied under oath about an affair. In a letter to Kilpatrick that was released by his office, Beatty said she believes she can no longer effectively carry out her duties. Her resignation takes effect Feb. 8.
"I painfully regret the devastation that the recent reports have caused to the citizens of Detroit, to my co workers, to the Mayor's family and to my family and friends," Beatty wrote in the letter. Kilpatrick spokesman James Canning said the mayor's office had no comment. Newspaper reports steamy details A prosecutor launched an investigation last week into the allegations, which came to light when the Detroit Free Press reported details of steamy text messages between Beatty and Kilpatrick. Both Kilpatrick and Beatty testified in a trial last summer that they did not have a physical relationship in 2002 and 2003, when the messages were reportedly sent. The 14,000 messages examined by the newspaper reveal the two carried on a flirty, sometimes sexually explicit dialogue about where to meet and how to conceal their numerous trysts.
"I'm madly in love with you," Kilpatrick wrote on Oct. 3, 2002.
"I hope you feel that way for a long time," Beatty replied. "In case you haven't noticed, I am madly in love with you, too!"
On Oct. 16, 2002, Kilpatrick wrote Beatty: "I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days. Relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love."
The pair testified in a case involving a lawsuit filed by two police officers who alleged they were fired for investigating claims that the mayor used his security unit to cover up extramarital affairs. The lawsuit ended with the jury awarding $6.5 million to the two officers. The payout eventually grew to more than $8.5 million. (As we note in our book, a good friend of the wife or long term partner does not sit on her pal's spouse's or partner's lap -- or stay out with him all night. Such conduct reveals utter disrespect for the wife or girlfriend. ~ Marie & Marlene) There's never a simple reason for a couple to part after 20 years. But if Sienna Miller didn't cause Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn to split up, some claim she may not have been a good influence. A source recalls a party in a suite at a New York hotel where they both were staying.
"Sienna was sitting on Sean's lap," according the source. "She was dressed very sexily. She had her arm around his neck." That night, claims the source, they stayed up quite late. One Penn friend maintains there was never anything romantic between them. "Sienna is like that with everyone," says the friend. "She's very physical. She drapes herself over people she likes. She doesn't mean a lot by it."
Miller's rep insists that suggestions that the actress, now dating Rhys Ifans, was ever more than friends with Penn are "outrageously untrue. Sienna is a very good friend of Robin. She adores and respects Robin." Still, you wonder if the up-till-dawn scene might trouble a wife left home with two kids. (Read all about "Man Eater Carla." ~ Marie & Marlene) With her high cheekbones, porcelain skin and feline gaze, there is little doubt that Carla Bruni looks like a First Lady. What the French are currently asking, however, is whether the 40-year-old model-turned-folk singer has the temperament to become a fitting consort to their most energetic, controversial and avidly Right-wing president in decades. Judging by the circumstances which led up to Miss Bruni's first meeting with the 52-year-old president, such a transformation might not be easy.
It is less than three months since the self-styled moneyed bohemian, who is more at home in the cafés and bookshops of Paris's Left Bank than the grand palaces of state across the Seine, was persuaded to attend a private dinner party where Mr. Sarkozy was guest of honour. At first she was not interested, imagining the newly divorced president to be as humourless and threatening as he often appears when lecturing the nation on television.
Shortly before Mr. Sarkozy was elected in May last year, Miss Bruni even said she supported his Socialist rival, Ségolène Royal. She also signed a petition against a Sarkozy-inspired law introducing DNA tests for the families of immigrants wishing to join them in France. Clearly Jacques Séguéla, a highly experienced political public relations executive who hosted the dinner at his Paris home in November, had his work cut out in persuading Miss Bruni to attend...
Within minutes of meeting, Carla was strumming her guitar and singing sweet nothings into the president's ear, starting a whirlwind romance which now appears set to result in marriage.
Although music brought the unlikely couple together, it may take rather more than that to sustain their romance. Forgetting their political differences, Miss Bruni is also four inches taller than the diminutive head of state, Italian-born rather than a French national, and - crucially - apparently contemptuous of traditional bourgeois morality.
Her long list of past lovers includes the British rock stars Sir Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton (who described the then coquettish wannabe singer as "the love of my life"), Donald Trump, the billionaire American property magnate and even Laurence Fabius, the former French Socialist prime minister.
In February Miss Bruni infamously told Le Figaro Madame magazine: "I am a tamer [of men], a cat, an Italian - monogamy bores me terribly. "I am faithful.?.?. to myself! I am monogamous from time to time but I prefer polygamy and polyandry [its female equivalent]."
She once lived with the French publisher Jean-Paul Enthoven but fell in love with his son, the philosopher Raphaël Enthoven, with whom she later had a child, Aurélien, now six. Raphaël Enthoven's ex-wife, Justine Lévy - the novelist daughter of the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy - later wrote a novella describing her side of the painful scenario. A fictional character based upon Miss Bruni was described as the "Terminator"; someone who was "beautiful and bionic, with the look of a killer".
Despite his highly publicised divorces, Mr. Sarkozy is a Roman Catholic who is as strong a believer in the institution of marriage as the moral majority from La France Profonde ("deep France") who voted him into office. Many of them have certainly expressed concern at how "Man Eater Carla" - as some sections of the French press have dubbed her - could transform the Elysée Palace from a dignified institution of state into somewhere decidedly more contemporary...
What is certain is that Miss Bruni already sees herself as a worthy replacement to the second Mrs. Sarkozy, who once said: "I don't see myself as a First Lady. It bores me. I prefer going round in combat trousers and cowboy boots. I don't fit the mould."
In contrast, a friend of Miss Bruni told the authors of Ruptures that she had decided to put aside her life as a seductress and realised that "she would be perfect for the job of First Lady".
Judging by the speed with which she and Mr. Sarkozy got together, France is likely to find out sooner rather later whether Miss Bruni's extraordinarily confident prediction is justified. © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2008. (As we note in our book, there are some women who are by nature predatory and you must mate guard against them. Read it to believe it, below. ~ Marie & Marlene) A TV news anchorwoman accused of punching a New York police officer called Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell shortly after her release from custody, according to a published report.
Alycia Lane, who was arrested in Manhattan early Sunday, wanted to tell Rendell her side of the story "because he is an opinion-maker and runs around in influential circles," Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo told the Philadelphia Daily News.
Ardo said Lane did not ask Rendell to intervene on her behalf and that Rendell would not do so if she asked. Lane, 35, who co-anchors evening newscasts at KYW-TV, the CBS affiliate here, has started a scheduled vacation early so she can deal with her legal problems, her employer said. Lane faces a felony charge of assaulting a police officer. She had been scheduled to start a two-week vacation next week. Given the circumstances, a station spokeswoman said, Lane began that time off Monday and will remain off the air for now. "Right now we're just buying a little time," Joanne Calabria said Monday. "We're still kind of on a fact-finding mission."
Police say that a male officer was trying to get an intoxicated man to return to his taxi when Lane thrust a camera in his face. After a female officer tried to pull the camera away, Lane identified herself as a reporter, cursed at the officer and hit her in the face, according to a police affidavit. Lane, through her attorney, maintains she never hit anyone. She has pleaded not guilty.
Lane made national headlines in May after she e-mailed vacation pictures of herself and friends wearing bikinis to NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen. The shots were intercepted by Eisen's wife. Lane said the pictures were meant to be good fun between old friends. That's not how the wife felt, per the New York Post ~ Marie & Marlene. Page Six, which reported May 1, 2007: FOXY Philadelphia TV reporter Alycia Lane is in hot water after a series of private e-mails and saucy snapshots she sent to handsome NFL Network anchorman Rich Eisen were intercepted by his wife.
Suzy Shuster, a sideline reporter for ABC's college football broadcasts, hit the roof when she discovered seven e-mails and several bikini photos sent by Lane - who works for CBS affiliate WKYW-TV and is recently divorced - to an account she and her husband, Eisen, share. That had Shuster firing off to Lane a scathing letter, a copy of which was obtained by Page Six.
A seething Shuster wrote: "Boy, do you look amazing in a bikini . . . congrats! Whatever you're doing, (Pilates? yoga?) keep doing it - it's working for you. Anyway, sorry but those seven e-mails you sent to my husband, Rich, well, oops, they came to the e-mail address we both use from time to time, but no worries, I'll forward the beach shots as well as the ones of you dancing with your friends on to his main address. Do you have it?"
She then provides her hubby's private e-mail, "since you surely are trying so hard to get his attention. I mean, what better way to get a guy's attention than with skin! Best - Suzy Shuster Eisen" (We would not recommend providing your husband's E-mail. ~ Marie & Marlene)
A source told Page Six: "Alycia is divorced and apparently looking for love again in all the wrong places. She sent [Eisen] an e-mail saying she was going to L.A., and she attached some risqué pictures just to whet his appetite. But, whoops, Rich is married to Suzy."
Both Lane and Eisen declined to comment, and Shuster did not respond to our e-mail.
Lane, a Long Island native, has had at least one awkward moment with a famous man before. Last year, she jetted to Monaco to interview Prince Albert on the 50th anniversary of Princess Grace's wedding and got invited to a private party at the palace.
In a photo seen by Page Six, the then-newlywed journo was seen cheek to cheek with Albert, her arms wrapped around him. In another, they're holding hands and dancing. Lane insisted there was no canoodling or risqué behavior. (Our book addresses why "friends" can be a danger to your marriage and why so many marriages to affair partners are doomed (think guilt and resentment). ~ Marie & Marlene) Chris Evert and Greg Norman are engaged, less than a year after divorces from longtime spouses. The couple got engaged Sunday night, said Tami Starr, director of Chris Evert Charities in Boca Raton, Fla. "They're not sure of a wedding date yet," Starr said. "They're both extremely happy they've found each other." Evert, who won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, wore a large diamond on her ring finger at a news conference Friday to announce a new tennis center at Pearl Valley Golf Estates, which is hosting the South African Open. Norman is playing in the tournament.
Evert and former husband Andy Mill, a World Cup and Olympic skier from Colorado, divorced last December after 18 years of marriage. The 52-year-old tennis great previously was married to British tennis player John Lloyd.
In September, Norman reached a multimillion-dollar divorce settlement with his wife of 26 years, Laura Andrassy. The 52-year-old Australian won the British Open in 1986 and 1993. Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. (As we note in our book, this story shows that being a beauty, and a movie star (like Ethan's former wife, Uma Thurman), does not inoculate one from the dangers of an ambitious nanny. ~ Marie & Marlene) You're looking at a first candid photo of Ethan Hawke and his secret lady love, Ryan Shawhughes. We told you last week how the two have been together on the down-low for years. The pair met when she was employed as a nanny for Hawke's two children, Maya, 9, and Roan, 5, while he was still married to Uma Thurman.
But this week's Star magazine (which neglects to tell its readers they got the story from Gatecrasher) says that contrary to the official version, their relationship actually began before his divorce.
Fancy that!
"They seem to be trying to rewrite history by saying they waited a whole year, so they could look innocent when word that they were together finally got out," an "insider" tells the mag.
"He was terrified, because he knew if Uma found out he was with their nanny, she'd blow up and the divorce would get nasty when it had been going relatively well."
In a city crawling with nosy gossip reporters, Ethan, 37 and Ryan, 28, did a great job of hiding in plain sight. This picture was taken at a benefit for NYU's Tisch School at the Marriott Marquis on Nov. 12.
"They certainly acted like they didn't want their photo taken," says a witness. "HOW WONDERFUL it is to meet a lady who's a gentleman!" That's what Frank Sinatra used to say about Angie Dickinson.
Frank's estimation of Angie is repeated in a lengthy Vanity Fair article on the actress, who is one of my all-time favorite people. (No offense to Katherine Heigl, but I'd have preferred Angie as the cover woman!) Her talents have always been underrated - her great sex appeal was a barrier, and she came up in the industry when the studio system was kaput. Nobody knew what to do with her unique look or her tough-but-tender persona. It took TV and Police Woman to put her over big-time. That, and her tense, poignant performance in Dressed to Kill. What has never been underrated is her sensitivity, earthy intelligence, loyalty, sense of humor and an innate modesty about her private life.
In this article, the famous tale of Angie returning the advance on her autobiography is retold. She did not wish to discuss her long-rumored friendship with President John F. Kennedy. She says now, of the rumor-accepted-as-fact, "It's like a broken wrist. It's an annoyance, but I have to live with it."
Well, the fact is, Angie did have an intimate relationship with JFK, and it is said, that of his many dalliances, he was most taken by her. But even during the affair, Angie Dickinson would never, ever have accepted Kennedy's invitation to sing "Happy Birthday" to him at that massive 1962 fundraiser at Madison Square Garden - Angie had a far more evolved sense of self than did Marilyn Monroe. Highly unlikely too that JFK would even have asked Angie to perform. (People today remember Monroe's breathy serenade as a "historic" moment. In fact it was rather sad and sordid and cruel - a desperate, misled woman, a reckless president. It was a dressed-up stag party.) Angie offers up her opinion of the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal. "He did so many great things for the country ... but if they can't find anything else, they go after the genitals!"
Angie recently endured the loss of her only child, Nikki, who suffered from Asperger Syndrome, an incurable neurological condition. Nikki committed suicide, after years of struggle. Angie was floored with grief, but she says now, "I miss Nikki so much, but it was her decision. The world was too harsh a place for her."
As for her career - which was generally on low burn to accommodate her ex-husband Burt Bacarach's work, or in caring for Nikki - Angie says, "I'm not saying I'll never act again. ... I don't care who you are, when you get past 50, it all changes. That's the way it is. It isn't wrong - we want to look at young, beautiful things."
I'd like to see the seasoned and still vital Angie onscreen again - dressed to kill, and acting up a storm. Marie & Marlene: For more on Ms. Dickinson, read the Vanity Fair article, A Legend with Legs. Per VF: After her breakthrough role in Rio Bravo, Angie Dickinson caught the eye of J.F.K., had an affair with Frank Sinatra, and married Burt Bacharach, while putting her stamp on movie and TV history. At 76, the brainy beauty tells almost all to Sam Kashner, including the tragedy of her daughter’s struggle with Asperger’s syndrome. Portrait by Norman Jean Roy. After standing by her man as he served a federal prison sentence, admitted fathering a child with another woman and embarrassed her political campaign by telling the press she wasn't giving him enough attention, Jeanine Pirro is finally separating from her husband, a family spokesman said Saturday. The split comes a year after Pirro lost her bid to become state attorney general, a campaign that was hounded by personal concerns as the couple's marriage troubles made headlines and Pirro acknowledged that she was under federal investigation for plotting to record her husband to catch him at a suspected affair.
"We have agreed to amicably separate," the couple, who have been married for more than three decades, said in a written statement released by spokesman Michael McKeon. Both have fallen out of the public spotlight recently. Pirro, once a frequent national television commentator, had been in talks to host a syndicated talk show. Her husband, Albert Pirro, was quietly reinstated as a lawyer in January, more than six years after he was disbarred for a tax fraud conviction.
"As always, our priority remains our two wonderful children. We ask that people respect our privacy," said the couple, who declined further comment.
In last year's races, Jeanine Pirro, a Republican, initially ran for U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton but abandoned the bid after failing to attract much attention or money in four months. On the first day of that campaign, she was left stumbling for words for 32 seconds when a page of her announcement speech went missing.
As the former Westchester County district attorney turned her attention to the attorney general seat, she repeatedly fielded questions about her husband, a longtime lawyer-lobbyist and GOP fundraiser. He had served a federal prison sentence on tax fraud charges and admitted that while married to her he fathered a child with another woman.
In a New York magazine article that appeared less than a month before the election, Albert Pirro denied having a new affair but said he sought the company of other women because he was not getting enough attention from his wife, who once made People magazine's Most Beautiful People list.
"You need to have someone tell you that you're smart or you're good looking or you made a good business decision," he told the magazine. "Do I think that I would like to have more attention at home? Yeah, and, you know, if you're not going to get attention at home, I think you really need to make some decisions about your future."
He said he believed his wife's political career had hurt him financially and legally. Jeanine Pirro told the magazine she had no plans to seek a divorce, insisting she had loved her husband from the day they met. Albert Pirro, however, did not rule out a split. By February of this year, the pair had put their opulent Harrison, N.Y., and Florida homes up for sale for a total of more than $5 million, according to Internet property listings at the time. One of the most stable relationships in the rock [world] has crumbled as Carlos Santana's wife has filed for divorce.
(As we note in our other book, If the Man You Love Was Abused, this story shows one of the possible consequences from a man's abuse as a boy, if not treated or addressed in some way. ~ Marie & Marlene) Deborah Santana cited irreconcilable differences as her reason for wanting to dissolve the couple's 34-year union when she began legal proceedings last month. The split has come as a shock to the music industry as the Sanatanas' marriage was viewed as one of the most enduring in the business. In a 2000 Rolling Stone magazine cover story, Carlos Santana said his wife was his spiritual, emotional and financial "guiding light," adding that he would "probably be a hobo" if she had not restructured his business life in 1994. He described himself as the "space cadet" in the relationship, and she said she had "trained" him to involve himself fully in their children's lives, take out the trash and drive the car pool when he was not touring.
However, in her 2005 memoir, "Space Between the Stars," his wife revealed he had been unfaithful. After its publication, Carlos Santana apologized and was trying to be a better man. He said: "I sincerely apologized to her and to my kids when I wasn't in my right mind and did something hurtful. It (the memoir) has helped me become more humble and to try harder to be the man she wants me to be."
Mexican-born Carlos Santana, famed for such 70s hits as "Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va," has sold over 90 million albums worldwide during a career spanning 40 years. He won eight Grammy Awards for his hugely popular 1999 comeback album "Supernatural."
The couple, who have three children, created non-profit-organisation the Milagro Foundation which supports underprivileged children. They also announced plans to open three Mexican restaurants in San Francisco earlier this year. Neither have commented on their pending divorce with Carlos Santana's publicist, Michael Jensen, saying the case is "a private matter and there is no comment." ©2007 Associated Newspapers Ltd. (As we note in our book, this story shows the danger of a woman in the work place looking to escape her bad marriage, by taking your mate for herself! ~ Marie & Marlene) The case of the millionaire Mississippi businessman slapped with a judgment of more than $750,000 for allegedly charming another man’s wife away from him has become a federal case, to say the least.
The lawyer who is appealing the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court says it’s not really about a woman named Sandra Day who married and left a plumber named Johnny Valentine, but about an archaic “alienation of affection” statute that has no place in modern society.
Because she left her husband for her boss — Jerry Fitch — whom she eventually married, Mississippi courts have ruled that Day's ex-husband is entitled to $642,000 in compensatory damages and $112,500 in punitive damages.
“I don’t feel like we should have to pay,” Jerry Fitch told TODAY’s Natalie Morales on Monday. “No, ma’am, I sure don’t.”
“It certainly is something that in today’s society has no place,” the Fitches’ attorney, Shelby Duke Goza, added. “Sandra was trapped in a dead marriage, had no way to escape, low income ability. She just can’t leave, and there are thousands of women who are no different than that and when they find some other outlet, there’s a penalty there. That’s not right.”
Mississippi is one of just seven states — Utah, New Mexico, South Dakota, Illinois, Mississippi, North Carolina and Hawaii are the others — that still have an alienation of affection law on the books. The concept dates back centuries to when a wife was considered her husband’s property. If another man has an affair with a married woman and captures her affections, the law gives the woman’s husband the right to monetary compensation for his loss.
The case dates back some nine years, to when Sandra Fitch, who was then married to Valentine, went to work for Jerry Fitch, who has an oil business and a real estate office in the little Mississippi town of Holly Springs. They fell in love and had an affair.
Her husband suspected, but both denied it. But when she got pregnant, a paternity test proved the child — a daughter — was fathered by Fitch.
The couple divorced in 2002 and Sandra married Jerry Fitch, who had also been married when their affair began. In 2005, Valentine sued under the alienation of affection law, blaming Fitch for the loss of his wife. But Sandra Fitch says that she had long since fallen out of love with Valentine.
“For six years, I dealt with gambling, and that was the end result of my marriage,” she told Morales. “My affection was alienated by that, not Jerry. He didn’t have anything to do with that.”
But Mississippi law was on Valentine’s side, and after a trial, Valentine won a chunk of Fitch’s fortune, which was estimated at $22 million by the [state] Supreme Court, which turned down his appeal.
Sandra Fitch said it’s difficult living in a small town with a story that is everybody’s business. And when the state supreme court recently turned down the appeal, it became the talk of the town again.
“It’s been hard,” she admitted to Morales. “We have children, and they are affected by it, and we are. And it’s really hard because it’s unnecessary. We’re trying to keep it as low-key as we can.”
Keeping it low-key may be tough. Besides appearing on the TODAY Show, Fitch has filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.
Morales observed that Sandra and Jerry Fitch committed adultery and asked if they saw anything wrong with what they did.
“With Sandra and I?” Jerry Fitch asked. “Nothing wrong there.” Study of 433 wealthy men and women reveals that, "variety and excitement were the most common reasons for an affair (64%), followed by lack of interest in spouse (48%), and feeling special or important (37%). Revenge was cited by 19% of the respondents." (Our book also addresses what to do after the affair, should you decide to remain in your marriage, like Cynthia Rodriguez did. ~ Marie & Marlene) Make room for one more - Alex Rodriguez and his wife, Cynthia, smile with their daughter, Natasha, at a July signing of 'Out of the Ballpark,' the children's book A-Rod dedicated to his 2-year-old. It's a double play for A-Rod - he and wife, Cynthia, are expecting another baby. The little slugger is due in the spring, the couple told People magazine yesterday. "I feel great!" said 34-year-old Cynthia. "We're thrilled. We can't wait." The couple has a daughter, Natasha, who is almost 3. They don't know the gender of the new baby, but plan to find out. "My daughter wants to know more than we do!" the proud mom said. "We're just real excited. It's almost more exciting [than the first child] in a way, because you can anticipate what you already know is so amazing." A-Rod, 32, said he was overjoyed to announce the new addition to the home team. "We realize what a special gift children are, and feel very blessed to welcome our second child," he told the magazine.
It seems the baby was conceived a few months after the couple's five-year marriage was tested by last spring's sex scandal. In late May, after he was caught with stripper Joslyn Morse on a road trip, reports of his antics at topless and swingers clubs around the country surfaced. A few weeks later, Cynthia raised eyebrows when she wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the profanity "F--- you" to a home game, with her toddler on her lap. At a book signing in late July, the missus was cool to A-Rod, barely looking at him and flashing a smile only for the cameras.
The frost appeared to have thawed a few weeks later when the Yankees returned to Toronto and A-Rod squired his wife around town. A-Rod and Cynthia met in 1996 at a Miami gym and married six years later. They moved to New York the next year. Her first pregnancy was a surprise, but the couple has said Alex warmed to fatherhood quicker than he did to third base. In a 2005 interview, the petite blond talked about how her husband liked to wake the slumbering baby when he returned home after bedtime. "It's hard, because I understand. I mean, he must miss her," Cynthia said. "I tell him not to and then he goes, 'I'm just going to give her a kiss.' And then all of a sudden, she miraculously wakes up. And he says, 'I swear I didn't do anything!'"
Alex gushed about Natasha in the same interview. "You look in her eyes and it makes everything easier," he said. Rodriguez penned a kids' book, "Out of the Ballpark," this year - and said he wrote it for his daughter. Here is how FOXSports.com would rank the Most Spectacular Sports Divorces Everpublished, September 14th 2007Greg and Laura Norman: This divorce ranks first for two reasons: The sheer size of the settlement and the fact that another celebrity (tennis legend Chris Evert) was cast in the role of home-wrecker.
As a golfer, personality, course designer and entrepreneur, Norman amassed a fortune of $300-500 million during his marriage — depending on which media estimate you believe. Various media reports estimated Laura's settlement at between $100 million and $200 million. Once the Norman-Evert romance became media fodder, especially in Norman's native Australia, the proceedings got chippy. At one point, Laura, a former flight attendant, discarded some of Greg's golf mementos. Norman agreed to settle rather than endure questions about his relationship with Evert.
"There were some things said during this process that weren't true," Norman told reporters. "I never cut off her credit cards. Some damage was done with sensational headlines. I got questions from people. There's always two sides to a story."
Chris Evert and Andy Mill: To free herself for Norman, Evert pulled the plug on her 18-year marriage to former skiing champion Andy Mill. She agreed to pay her ex-hubby $7 million in cash and securities while gaining custody of their three children. This was still a tough deal for Mill, who previously considered Norman one of his good friends. "These two people have really meant a lot to me for a long time," he told People. "At this point I just wish them great happiness." WRONGED WIFE: Josabeth Fribourg [below], whose estranged husband, Paul, was named as the "other man" in the Paula Zahn marital battle, is in the midst of kicking her cheating spouse to the curb. She spoke to The Post yesterday outside her East Side home. She's the anti-Paula Zahn, a Bohemian beauty with gray flowing hair, casual clothes and a sweet smile.
But Josabeth Fribourg and plastique TV newscaster Zahn share one big thing in common - Fribourg's husband, Paul.
In what has turned into a titillating, very public battle between Zahn and estranged hubby Richard Cohen, Josabeth Fribourg has been thrown into the spotlight that she seems to abhor, and Zahn would typically crave.
Josabeth -- a classy, cultured native of Morocco -- was gentle but firm as she spoke to a reporter outside her stately Upper East Side townhouse yesterday.
"I have four children. My family is very important to me. Leave me out of this," Josabeth, dressed in a billowy smock and toting an artsy but pricey pouch, said politely with a slight accent before strolling off.
Her 53-year-old husband was nowhere in sight yesterday.
Likewise for Zahn, 51, and Cohen, 59, whose camps have been trading barbs recently over the former CNN anchor's "love diary" that detailed the allegedly steamy sex romps Cohen shared with Paul Fribourg for years -- even while he was playing best pal to Cohen.
It's unclear when Josabeth Fribourg, 56, first learned of her husband's alleged straying, but it clearly tore apart their 20-year marriage. The couple is now in the middle of a divorce.
Josabeth is the antithesis of the perfectly coifed, painfully put-together other woman in her life.
She preferred to stay behind the scenes as her husband ran his family's multimillion-dollar food empire, remaining at home to raise their children.
But she's no shrinking violet. She's a world traveler with a passion for art.
She also clearly enjoys politics, albeit from the sidelines. Listing her occupation as "homemaker," Josabeth has contributed money to everyone from Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney this year to both President Bush and Democratic foe John Kerry in the last election.
But her private world was torn apart when her husband's alleged affair surfaced. Zahn pal: She left for sexBy George Rush and Corky Siemaszko With Elizabeth Hays and Jose Martinez, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS, published, August 28th 2007Anchorwoman Paula Zahn told pals her sexless marriage to Richard Cohen drove her into the arms of another man.
A friend of the former CNN anchor said the fire went out of the 20-year marriage long before Cohen learned of the affair last August when he found his wife's "lurid" sex diary.
"She and Richard weren't having sex for some time," the friend said.
Friends of the cuckolded Cohen tell a different story - that Zahn betrayed him when she "strayed" with his pal Paul Fribourg.
"I trusted Paul and I trusted Paula," Cohen told a friend. "I had no inkling there was a long-term romance."
The ugly new charges and countercharges came as the celebrity marriage continued to implode - and after the Daily News revealed how Cohen found a diary illustrated with photos in which Zahn laid bare her alleged affair with the married ContiGroup CEO.
"Richard felt like he'd been stabbed in the heart twice when he found out his wife had been cheating with one of his best friends," one of the tycoon's pals said yesterday. "They played golf and tennis together. Their families skied together in Aspen."
Cohen's ally called the diary "shocking" and "lurid." Zahn's side said the handwritten diary was more about love than lust.
"You know how it is when you're first in love," a friend said. "She was euphoric. She was like a 16-year-old schoolgirl."
Neither Cohen, 59, a multimillionaire developer, nor Zahn, 51, has formally filed for divorce. Zahn has moved out of the Fifth Ave. co-op she and Cohen shared with their three children.
Last week, Zahn filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court alleging Cohen mismanaged the $25 million she invested with him. She also charged he was trying to gain "some sort of tactical advantage" amid the breakup by withholding information on the money he managed.
"Our suit is very simple," said Stanley Arkin, who is working with lawyer William Zabel on Zahn's legal team. "We ask them to give us the facts. As to everything else, it is whiney baloney."
Cohen has denied his wife's accusations. A friend of Cohen said Zahn is trying to even the score and "undermine their prenup" with claims that he withheld sex.
It's "the dumbest thing he'd ever heard," the friend said. "He certainly wasn't withholding sex. She was the one getting sex on the outside. It was not an issue."
A Zahn friend said she could mount a challenge to their prenup because "Richard told her he was ripping up the prenup when they had their first child."
Fribourg has not spoken publicly about his alleged romance with Zahn, which has ripped apart his marriage to wife, Josabeth. They own an estate in Greenwich, Conn., near Cohen and Zahn's spread. Cohen, co-founder of Boston-based Capital Properties, met Zahn in the early 1980s when she worked at a local TV station in Boston. They married in 1987 and have three children: daughter Haley, 17, and sons Jared, 13, and Austin, 10.
Zahn's friends claim Cohen was infuriated when he found the diary and confronted her with the alleged evidence of her betrayal.
"Apparently, that was some scene," said Zahn's pal, who said Cohen also showed the diary to their kids. "He's been trying to use it as leverage against her."
A source close to Cohen called claims that he showed the diary to the children "totally false."
If Cohen and Zahn wind up in divorce court, the celebrated battle over the eviction of two red-tailed hawks from their East Side building could be revisited.
Cohen was the co-op board chief when Pale Male and Lola were briefly ousted from their nest in the building - drawing the ire of New Yorkers.
"Paula got all the abuse," a friend said of Zahn. "He didn't seem to care."
The hullabaloo over the hawks "has nothing to do with their split," a friend of Cohen's said.
"Neither of them was an enemy of Pale Male," he said. "This diversion is for the birds." Prince Charles' wife announced Sunday that she will not attend a service marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, after criticism that her presence would be inappropriate.
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had accepted an invitation from Charles and his sons, Princes William and Harry, to accompany them to the service Friday at the Guards' Chapel in London's Wellington Barracks. Some criticized the decision, since Camilla had an affair with Charles when he was still married to Diana.
"I'm very touched to have been invited by Prince William and Prince Harry to attend the thanksgiving service for their mother Diana, Princess of Wales," the duchess said in a statement. "I accepted and wanted to support them. However, on reflection I believe my attendance could divert attention from the purpose of the occasion which is to focus on the life and service of Diana. I'm grateful to my husband, William and Harry for supporting my decision."
Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth II also supported this decision.
Hard-core Diana fans, who accuse Camilla of destroying Diana's marriage, were relieved.
"I couldn't be happier if I'd won the lottery," said Joan Berry, secretary of the Diana Appreciation Society.
Diana, known for her charity work and tabloid celebrity, died in a Paris car crash with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, on Aug. 31, 1997.
Diana married Charles in 1981 in a ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral televised around the world. They had two sons, William and Harry, but divorced in 1996 after admissions of adultery on both sides.
Friday's anniversary will be marked with a nationally televised memorial service and specially commissioned prayers. Germaine Greer launched an astonishing attack on the late Princess of Wales at the Edinburgh International Book Festival yesterday, labelling her a "devious moron".
Greer was supposed to be speaking about her contentious new history book about Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's Wife, due to be published at the beginning of September.
But while she described Hathaway as Shakespeare's "angel", she used the occasion to express her view that Diana was no angel at all. "I have come to the conclusion that she was a devious moron," said the Australian academic and broadcaster. "One of the things I have been puzzled by is why her whole life was such a mess. She made a mess of being Princess of Wales, but that is fine because the job is not do-able. It is an insane job and, in history, all but one of the Princesses of Wales have come to a sticky end – stickier than hers.
"I am also interested in why she couldn't manage life after being HRH. It still puzzles me that she does that no-no thing: she sleeps with married men. If you do that in Hello! magazine, you are beyond contempt. But she does it with Will Carling, we forgive her somehow – even though his marriage is in a very delicate state and it doesn't seem to have helped at all.
"Then she does it with Oliver Hoare, the antiques dealer, who eventually realises he is in deep shit and goes back to his wife. She makes 300 nuisance calls to his home phone number. And this is the angel that people want to crown."
Never one to avoid controversy, Greer also suggested that Shakespeare died from syphilis, and that his bones, which could show the signs of the disease, will never be found. "The likely cause of Shakespeare's death was syphilis, contracted when he was a young man," she said.
Although she called him the "man of the millennium" for his writing, she described his long poem "Venus and Adonis" as "the housewives' porn that every lady kept by the bedside", and which was a torment for his wife's reputation.
Greer criticised generations of "demeaning and mean-spirited" male academics who have suggested that Shakespeare was forced to marry a"complete slag... the town bike" when she became pregnant, even though Hathaway was physically repellent and eight years older than him.
She singled out the critic Stephen Greenblatt for underestimating the role of this "silent woman of Shakespeare". Instead, Greer proposed that the marriage was for love. Greer also believes that Hathaway was Shakespeare's business angel, paying for his collection of plays to be published and preserved, securing his place in literary history.
"I argue that the only way the folio was ever published is that somebody paid for it. There was an angel, somebody who was determined that the work that cost so much for her would not disappear into the morgue of time. I think she gave the money.
"It is liberating to consider the possibility that a wife made a material contribution to the greatness of her husband. Why has it never been countenanced? All the literary wives you have heard of were considered to be frail, faulty and not worthy. I say the wives of great authors are essential to their success, whether the academic establishment has realised it or not, and we might as well begin at the top, with the wife of the man of the millennium." © 2007 Independent News and Media Limited. A Spanish-language newscaster who had an affair with the mayor of Los Angeles has been suspended from her job for two months for violating conflict-of-interest policies, her network said Thursday.
Mirthala Salinas was having a relationship with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa when she announced the news of his separation from his wife of 20 years on Telemundo station KVEA, Channel 52.
Salinas was suspended without pay. The findings of the NBC Universal cable channel's three-week investigation were reported on its national newscast.
"Her reading of copy during newscasts . . . regarding the Mayor's separation from his wife was a flagrant violation of these guidelines," network President Don Browne wrote in a memo to employees. Messages left with Telemundo and Salinas's representative were not immediately returned.
Salinas, 35, was placed on leave July 5 while her employer investigated whether her romantic relationship with Villaraigosa breached journalistic ethics.
She has said station managers knew of her relationship with the mayor before she announced the news of his breakup. Salinas led into the story by saying, "The rumors were true."
Photo Credit: By Robert Durell -- Los Angeles Times Via Associated Press Related Article: Affair With Mayor Prompts Suspension of Newscaster, page C04 (Read all about "Judi," who met the Mayor while he was married and later married him herself. Now this "Other Woman" wants to be First Lady. See for yourself. ~ Marlene & Marie) If everything works out, it may be the last great political deal brokered in a smoke-filled room. On a balmy June night in 1999, Judith Nathan was having a drink at Club Macanudo, a cigar bar on East 63rd Street. Her companion was Dr. Burt Meyers, an infectious-disease specialist at Mount Sinai hospital and one of the many physicians she had befriended as a hospital sales rep for Bristol-Myers Squibb. Nathan, then 44, was at ease amid the upmarket manliness, a woman of the world among many middle-aged men of the world, including, that night, the mayor of the City of New York, Rudolph Giuliani.
Club Mac, with its wooden Indians, leather sofas, and “state-of-the-art ventilation system,” had become a well-known late-night haunt for the mayor. Perhaps it was also something of an escape: He was still living at Gracie Mansion with his second wife, television personality Donna Hanover. Here, he could kick back with a tumbler of Glenlivet and relax with City Hall aides and political associates. Sometimes a woman would approach him, interrupting his cigar-smoking to express her admiration, maybe get an autograph. Perhaps flirt mildly. So it wasn’t surprising when Nathan, a pretty woman with rich brown hair, came over and said hello.
This story of how they met had to be pieced together from accounts by Giuliani intimates because the couple refuses to talk about it [but Judi's game to discuss it ~ M.B.]. Even during their gauzy TV interview this past March with Barbara Walters—who was a guest at their wedding in 2003—which was a custom-made moment to safely peddle this type of personal anecdotage, Judith demurred. “That’s one thing I would kind of like to keep private,” she said, allowing only that “it was by accident.”
A few days after their fateful meeting, the mayor had an aide retrieve Judith’s business card from his desk drawer at City Hall, then he phoned and asked her out. They took in a movie at Loews Kips Bay, The General’s Daughter, which is about a cover-up at West Point. At dinner afterward, at Peter Luger Steakhouse, they were chaperoned by a couple of City Hall staffers.
Later, on the occasion of their marriage, Giuliani would tell the Times’ “Vows” columnist that “our attraction was instantaneous. There was something mystical about the feeling.” He evoked an appropriately operatic moment from one of his favorite novels, Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, when Michael Corleone spotted his Sicilian bride, Apollonia. “It was,” Rudy said, “the thunderbolt.”
When she met the mayor at Club Macanudo, Judith Nathan couldn’t have imagined the complexity of the relationship she was getting into. At that point, the considerable successes of Rudy’s mayoralty were in the past and his future was uncertain. He may have looked like a catch, but he certainly did not look like a potential president. There was talk of a Senate run. Now, in a Cinderella-like reversal, Judith Giuliani, with her husband’s help, is auditioning for a vast and contradictory role: romantic partner of America’s Mayor, wholesome third wife, definer of gender roles, and emblem of respectable femininity for an entire nation. So far, her attempts to play this impossible part have been riveting, if sometimes comic.
Rudy Giuliani has always been the most insular of politicians, operating within his personal tribe, at odds with most everyone outside. The prime value is extreme loyalty, and for those in possession of that quality (think Bernard Kerik), much else is forgiven. Like George W. Bush, he and his team create their own reality and wait for the world to follow.
Judith Giuliani is the latest to join this coterie, and by far the most important. He’s given her influence into all facets of his professional life. He has often referred to Judith as his “closest adviser.” In a 2003 TV interview, Rudy claimed that Judith is “an expert we rely on” at Giuliani Partners. “She gives us a lot of advice and a lot of help in areas where she’s got a lot of expertise—biological and chemical,” Rudy said as Judith watched him and nodded vigorously. “And since we do security work, that’s an area of great concern—you know, another anthrax attack, a smallpox attack, chemical agents. She knows all of that.” Famously, he told Barbara Walters that Judith would be able to sit in on cabinet meetings, acting at the time as if this were a perfectly ordinary responsibility for a president to give his wife.
At other times, their presentation has been lovey-dovey to the point of queasiness. Their displays of affection got so gooey during the taping of the Walters interview that the ABC News doyenne is said to have joked, “Enough already!” They held hands and cooed; he called her “baby” and she called him “sweetheart” as they kissed on the lips. At one point, after he absolved her of responsibility for his divorce from Hanover and his alienation from their two children (“She’s done everything she can. She loves all the children”), Judith, who was serenely feminine in a sea-green sweater, with another, lavender sweater tied casually around her neck over it, French preppy style, reached out to caress his cheek. When Walters asked her if she was “bothered” by her affair with the married mayor, Judith responded, blandly, “It was a rocky road, absolutely. But when you have a partnership that is based on mutual respect and communication, the two of you know what’s going on.”
Americans have an unresolved relationship with their idea of what a First Lady should be. It doesn’t usually involve thunder and lightning. Political consultants know what’s easiest to sell: Harriet Nelson, which is to say more or less Laura Bush. More-assertive types, be it the Svengali socialite in couture (early Nancy Reagan), the defiantly unkittenish liberal crusader (early Hillary Clinton), or the aloof and foreign-seeming heiress (Teresa Heinz-Kerry), are more off-putting because it’s difficult to identify with them... Copyright © 2007, New York Magazine Holdings LLC. All Rights Reserved. ...The position of "Mrs. Giuliani" has not historically been a secure post. Although the candidate has lately been warned by advisers to avoid any hint of scandal, there is a sense that perhaps he is not listening. "Does a leopard change its spots?" says one close friend. Recently, Starr Shephard, a Texan who informs me she used to be on the "U.S. world team of rhythmic twirling gymnastics," emerged in The National Enquirer, which ran a story suggesting she might be a Giuliani love interest. "I am not having an affair with Rudy Giuliani. I do not need a political power stick," the 36-year-old redhead says when I call her. "I believe in his vision and his voice even if I do not believe in his family."
"What do you mean by that?" I wonder.
"Oh, you know, you hear things about his family," she replies.
"God Bless America for his power," Shephard writes on MySpace. Beneath a photo of herself and Rudy there is a promise that he will "advance our one nation under God."
Naturally, Judith is on her guard. "And who are you?" she inquired of an attractive and prominent Republican woman who embraced her husband during a chance encounter in a New York restaurant. The woman marvels at such behavior. ("I felt like saying, 'Really, it's O.K.! I love my husband!'" she recalls.) But who can blame Judith?
"They're all there to stay," says Papir. "Until they're gone. And the staff usually knows before they do. And we hear the footsteps."
There have been other moments of vulnerability. At the close of the May Republican debate, Judith leapt onstage eagerly, her face beaming with delight. Giuliani, it was noted, appeared strangely disconcerted. "It did not look like he was happy to see her. It looked to me like he was estranged," says Barrett. "He was cold."
It was in the ladies' room before the event that observers got a telling glimpse of the real Judith. She had gone there to touch up her makeup when some of her husband's staff informed her Giuliani was in the vicinity, walking by.
"He's out there! Coming by!" repeated Judith, her voice tense with excitement. And then a plea: "Tell him to wait for me!"
Copyright 2007 Vanity Fair Magazine. Judy Bachrach is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. (Read all about "Laurie," who called upon the then-married, Time Warner CEO and then, became his second wife. ~ This is the kind of woman our book was written to warn you of, and take action against. ~ Marlene & Marie) Jerry Levin sits in a sunlight-splashed room in Santa Monica, California, overlooking a courtyard fountain and a weeping willow. He wears a droopy sweater in a muted tone and a pair of comfortable sneakers. He nibbles an organic vegan lunch that’s been prepared for us by the chef here at Moonview Sanctuary.
“We want you to enjoy the meal,” Levin says to me, “without any pressure with respect to the article that you have to write.” I tell him it’s difficult for me to hang loose when I’m doing my job. “That’s the way I used to treat business meals,” he says. “There would be food, but I never enjoyed it.”
Gerald Levin was once chairman and CEO of Time Warner. He oversaw 90,000 employees. He served as a director of the New York Stock Exchange and was a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. He was perhaps the most powerful media executive in the world.
Today, Levin is presiding director of Moonview Sanctuary, a “holistic healing institute” with a full-time staff of fewer than twenty people. Just down the hall from us is a yoga room with an extremely large gong. Another room holds tribal hand drums, Tibetan bowls, and traditional gamelan instruments—all used in ceremonial “men’s circles” led by Moonview clinicians. There’s a massage and acupuncture room. A chiropractic room. A room where Moonview clients can work on their “journaling.” In the hallway is a marble Buddha statue, posed in a mudra representing service and protection. The statue was a gift from Levin to his wife, Laurie, who is Moonview’s founder and CEO.
Levin first met Dr. Laurie Perlman in June 2002. Musing on his future plans in a CNN interview with Lou Dobbs, Levin had said he hoped to bring “the poetry” back into his life. Laurie saw the quote, and its delicate sentiment struck a chord with her. She called Levin to request a meeting, and for reasons he still can’t fully explain, he gave her half an hour the next Monday morning.
“I don’t know why I was compelled to meet with her,” he says between slow, careful bites of tofu. “It seemed like it was coming so far out of left field. At first I thought she was asking for an investment, and that would have turned me off immediately. But she was smart enough not to say that—even if she had that in mind.”
Levin, 68, sports an off-and-on gray beard and a California tan these days, but back then, he was a pale, clean-shaven executive. About a month prior to his meeting with Laurie, he’d retired from Time Warner, after ten years as its CEO, in the wake of a devastating misstep: the ill-fated merger with AOL, which he’d eagerly spearheaded and which had essentially vaporized $200 billion of shareholder money. The stock was down 70 percent since the deal. Exiled to a temporary office, he was preparing to depart in shame from the company he’d worked at for over 30 years and ran for ten.
“You could hunt elk in this office, it was so big,” says Laurie. Laurie is a blonde 54-year-old. She’s quick to smile, and there’s something girlish in the way she flops down for a chat on the overstuffed couch in her office. She spent 25 years in the entertainment industry—first as an agent at CAA (her bio says she scouted and signed Madonna and Michael Keaton) and later as the head of her own film-production company—before she changed gears and entered an unaccredited, three-year psychology program at Ryokan College in Los Angeles. Upon getting her degree, she developed a plan to create a “temple of transformation, about self-love and inner peace,” which would cater to people in the public eye. Why did she feel that Gerald Levin might help her launch a boutique wellness clinic? “Because who better would understand the need to have a safe place to take a tumble in private,” she says.
To prepare for her meeting with Levin, Laurie consulted an unusual confidant. “Before we met, I Googled Jerry’s info and started to pull up the articles around Jonathan and his murder,” she says. In 1997, Levin experienced the worst tragedy imaginable for a parent. His 31-year-old son, Jonathan, who’d chosen to work as an English teacher at a public high school in the Bronx, was brutally robbed, tortured, and killed in his Upper West Side apartment by a former student and an accomplice. They bound Jonathan with duct tape, cut him with a knife until he revealed his ATM number, went outside to withdraw $800 from his bank account, then returned and shot him in the head.
“I meditated and got myself into a place where I was very relaxed and awake,” says Laurie. “You remain empty to receive the answer, and you see what comes through. And Jon talked to me. I thought he was preparing me for the meeting. But he was also preparing me for Jerry’s and my relationship, though I didn’t know it at the time.”
She did not mention to Levin, at this initial meeting, that she’d spoken with his dead son. But six months later, the two of them went to dinner at Michael’s, and the mood became more intimate. Laurie decided this was a good moment to discuss what she calls “soul communion.”
“Normally, it would have offended me,” says Levin. “Particularly when anyone mentioned my son, I would just shut down. But without knowing why, from an emotional point of view, I received this as being real. It was so far beyond my own belief system, yet in an intuitive flash it seemed so real to me and so believable. So I was drawn to that.”
He was drawn to Laurie too. It was on this night that Levin says he first realized they would be “partners in love.” They began to talk on the phone eight hours a day. Soon after (though he says his marriage had long been dying of its own accord), Levin asked his wife of 32 years for a divorce....
...Gerald Levin believed in cable television. He believed in AOL. Today, he believes in his wife. I’ve seen Jerry and Laurie smooch in the hallways of Moonview, and their body language is all giddy adoration. The most recent time I spoke to them, over the phone, they’d just returned from a vacation in Kauai, where she hiked, he jogged, and they meditated together every morning and night. “It’s hard to fight when you meditate together,” says Laurie. I ask Laurie what attracted her to Jerry. “First of all, I’m stroking his head as I answer,” she says. “You can write that. To answer your question: I love the generosity of his wisdom and the patience with which he listens.”
I then put the question to Jerry. “I love the profound nature of our relationship,” he says, “which is constantly searching, aspiring, and questioning together. Laurie radiates a light that makes you feel warm and inspired at the same time.”
I’ve sensed only genuine love and devotion between them, but it’s clear to me that their relationship could be construed by some as distasteful, or perhaps even sinister. Cast in the coldest, most cynical terms: Laurie sought a meeting with a wealthy man and, after laying a bit of groundwork, told him she’d communicated with his tragically murdered son. The wealthy man believed—no doubt wanted to believe—in her supernatural tale, and within months, he became both her lover and her business partner.
Jerry and Laurie view this as a “narrow” and ridiculous interpretation of what really happened. Jerry has emphasized to me repeatedly that their relationship is “the most unusual thing. Other people like to put things in a familiar category, but this relationship is unique.” Laurie dismisses the notion that their love was built on a foundation of grief. “Jon had been dead five years when we met,” she points out. “It wasn’t about the resolution of grief. It was about the inspiration of a new perspective: that we are eternal.”... Copyright © 2007, New York Magazine Holdings LLC. All Rights Reserved. From the beginning of his political career 16 years ago, Senator David Vitter has been known for efforts to plant himself on the moral high ground, challenging the ethics of other Louisiana politicians, decrying same-sex marriage and depicting himself as a clean-as-a-whistle champion of family values.
“I’m a conservative who opposes radically redefining marriage, the most important social institution in human history,” Mr. Vitter, a 46-year-old Republican, wrote in a letter last year to The Times-Picayune, the New Orleans daily.
That self-created image, a political winner here since 1991, when Mr. Vitter joined the Louisiana House, took a tumble Monday with the disclosure that his phone number was among those on a list of client numbers kept by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam, who is accused of running a prostitution ring in Washington.
Mr. Vitter admitted Monday night to a “very serious sin in my past,” and talk radio and coffee s |
